The present invention generally relates to phototherapy or photostimulation of biological tissue, such as laser retinal photocoagulation therapy. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a process for treating an eye to stop or delay the onset of symptoms of retinal diseases in a patient using harmless, subthreshold phototherapy or photostimulation of the retina.
The complications of chronic progressive retinal diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy (DR) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) constitute major causes of visual loss worldwide. Complications of diabetic retinopathy remain a leading cause of vision loss in people under sixty years of age. Diabetic macular edema is the most common cause of legal blindness in this patient group. Diabetes mellitus, the cause of diabetic retinopathy, and thus diabetic macular edema, is increasing in incidence and prevalence worldwide, becoming epidemic not only in the developed world, but in the developing world as well. Diabetic retinopathy may begin to appear in persons with Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes within three to five years of disease onset. The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy increases with duration of disease. By ten years, 14%-25% of patients will have diabetic macular edema. By twenty years, nearly 100% will have some degree of diabetic retinopathy. Untreated, patients with clinically significant diabetic macular edema have a 32% three-year risk of potentially disabling moderate visual loss.
General laser treatment of the retina for various disorders has been employed for over fifty years. Traditionally, laser photocoagulation characterized by intentional laser-induced thermal destruction and scarification of the retina has been employed. Photocoagulation has been found to be an effective means of producing retinal scars, and has become the technical standard for macular photocoagulation for diabetic macular edema. Due to the clinical effectiveness of retinal laser photocoagulation, the long-held view in medicine was that the beneficial effects of treatment were due to the retinal damage created by photocoagulation.
There are different exposure thresholds for retinal lesions that are haemorrhagic, ophthalmoscopically apparent, or angiographically demonstrable. A “threshold” lesion is one that is barely visible ophthalmoscopically at treatment time, a “subthreshold” lesion is one that is not visible at treatment time, and “suprathreshold” laser therapy is retinal photocoagulation performed to a readily visible endpoint. Traditional retinal photocoagulation treatment requires a visible endpoint either to produce a “threshold” lesion or a “suprathreshold” lesion so as to be readily visible and tracked. In fact, it has been believed that actual tissue damage and scarring are necessary in order to create the benefits of the procedure. The gray to white retinal burns testify to the thermal retinal destruction inherent in conventional threshold and suprathreshold photocoagulation.
With reference now to FIG. 1, a diagrammatic view of an eye, generally referred to by the reference number 10, is shown. When using phototherapy, the laser light is passed through the patient's cornea 12, pupil 14, and lens 16 and directed onto the retina 18. The retina 18 is a thin tissue layer which captures light and transforms it into the electrical signals for the brain. It has many blood vessels, such as those referred to by reference number 20, to nourish it. Various retinal diseases and disorders, and particularly vascular retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, are treated using conventional thermal retinal photocoagulation, as discussed above. The fovea/macula region, referred to by the reference number 22 in FIG. 1, is a portion of the eye used for color vision and fine detail vision. The fovea is at the center of the macula, where the concentration of the cells needed for central vision is the highest. Although it is this area where diseases such as age-related macular degeneration are so damaging, this is the area where conventional photocoagulation phototherapy cannot be used as damaging the cells in the foveal area can significantly damage the patient's vision. Thus, with current convention photocoagulation therapies, the foveal region is avoided.
Until the advent of thermal retinal photocoagulation, there was generally no effective treatment for diabetic retinopathy. Using photocoagulation to produce photothermal retinal burns as a therapeutic maneuver was prompted by the observation that the complications of diabetic retinopathy were often less severe in eyes with preexisting retinal scarring from other causes. The Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study demonstrated the efficacy of argon laser macular photocoagulation in the treatment of diabetic macular edema. Full-thickness retinal laser burns in the areas of retinal pathology were created, visible at the time of treatment as white or gray retinal lesions (“suprathreshold” retinal photocoagulation). With time, these lesions developed into focal areas of chorioretinal scarring and progressive atrophy.
With visible endpoint photocoagulation, laser light absorption heats pigmented tissues at the laser site. Heat conduction spreads this temperature increase from the retinal pigment epithelium and choroid to overlying non-pigmented and adjacent unexposed tissues. Laser lesions become visible immediately when damaged neural retina overlying the laser sight loses its transparency and scatters white ophthalmoscopic light back towards the observer.
Conventional thinking assumes that the physician must intentionally create retinal damage as a prerequisite to therapeutically effective treatment. With reference to FIG. 2, FIGS. 2A-2F are graphic representations of the effective surface area of various modes of retinal laser treatment for retinal vascular disease. The gray background represents the retina 30 which is unaffected by the laser treatment. The black areas 32 are areas of the retina which are destroyed by conventional laser techniques. The lighter gray or white areas 34 represent the areas of the retina affected by the laser, but not destroyed.
FIG. 2A illustrates the therapeutic effect of conventional argon laser retinal photocoagulation. The therapeutic effects attributed to laser-induced thermal retinal destruction include reduced metabolic demand, debulking of diseased retina, increased intraocular oxygen tension and ultra production of vasoactive cytokines, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
With reference to FIG. 2B, increasing the burn intensity of the traditional laser burn is shown. It will be seen that the burned and damaged tissue area 32 is larger, which has resulted in a larger “halo effect” of heated, but undamaged, surrounding tissue 34. Laboratory studies have shown that increased burn intensity is associated with an enhanced therapeutic effect, but hampered by increased loss of functional retina inflammation. However, with reference to FIG. 2C, when the intensity of the conventional argon laser photocoagulation is reduced, the area of the retina 34 affected by the laser but not destroyed is also reduced, which may explain the inferior clinical results from lower-intensity/lower-density or “mild” argon laser grid photocoagulation compared to higher-intensity/higher-density treatment, as illustrated in FIG. 2B.
With reference to FIG. 2D, it has been found that low-fluence photocoagulation with short-pulse continuous wave laser photocoagulation, also known as selective retinal therapy, produces minimal optical and lateral spread of laser photothermal tissue effects, to the extent that the area of the retina affected by the laser but not destroyed is minimal to nonexistent. Thus, despite complete oblation of the directly treated retina 30, the rim of the therapeutically affected and surviving tissue is scant or absent. This explains the recent reports finding superiority of conventional argon laser photocoagulation over PASCAL for diabetic retinopathy.
That iatrogenic retinal damage is necessary for effective laser treatment of retinal vascular disease has been universally accepted for almost five decades, and remains the prevailing notion. Although providing a clear advantage compared to no treatment, current retinal photocoagulation treatments, which produce visible gray to white retinal burns and scarring, have disadvantages and drawbacks. Conventional photocoagulation is often painful. Local anesthesia, with its own attendant risks, may be required. Alternatively, treatment may be divided into stages over an extended period of time to minimize treatment pain and post-operative inflammation. Transient reduction in visual acuity is common following conventional photocoagulation.
In fact, thermal tissue damage may be the sole source of the many potential complications of conventional photocoagulation which may lead to immediate and late visual loss. Such complications include inadvertent foveal burns, pre- and sub-retinal fibrosis, choroidal neovascularization, and progressive expansion of laser scars. Inflammation resulting from the tissue destruction may cause or exacerbate macular edema, induced precipitous contraction of fibrovascular proliferation with retinal detachment and vitreous hemorrhage, and cause uveitis, serous choroidal detachment, angle closure or hypotony. Some of these complications are rare, while others, including treatment pain, progressive scar expansion, visual field loss, transient visual loss and decreased night vision are so common as to be accepted as inevitable side-effects of conventional laser retinal photocoagulation. In fact, due to the retinal damage inherent in conventional photocoagulation treatment, it has been limited in density and in proximity to the fovea, where the most visually disabling diabetic macular edema occurs.
Notwithstanding the risks and drawbacks, retinal photocoagulation treatment, typically using a visible laser light, is the current standard of care for proliferative diabetic retinopathy, as well as other retinopathy and retinal diseases, including diabetic macular edema and retinal venous occlusive diseases which also respond well to retinal photocoagulation treatment. In fact, retinal photocoagulation is the current standard of care for many retinal diseases, including diabetic retinopathy.
Currently, retinal imaging and visual acuity testing guide management of the detected retinal diseases. As end-organ structural damage and vision loss are late disease manifestations, treatment instituted at this point must be intensive, often prolonged and expensive, frequently failing to improve visual acuity, and rarely restoring normal vision.
Another problem is that the treatment requires the application of a large number of laser doses to the retina, which can be tedious and time-consuming. Typically, such treatments call for the application of each dose in the form of a laser beam spot applied to the target tissue for a predetermined amount of time, from a few hundred milliseconds to several seconds. Typically, the laser spots range from 50-500 microns in diameter. Their laser wavelength may be green, yellow, red or even infrared. It is not uncommon for hundreds or even in excess of one thousand laser spots to be necessary in order to fully treat the retina. The physician is responsible for insuring that each laser beam spot is properly positioned away from sensitive areas of the eye, such as the fovea, that could result in permanent damage. Laying down a uniform pattern is difficult and the pattern is typically more random than geometric in distribution. Point-by-point treatment of a large number of locations tends to be a lengthy procedure, which frequently results in physician fatigue and patient discomfort.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for a process for treating an eye to stop or delay the onset or symptoms of retinal diseases in a patient without many of the drawbacks and complications resulting from conventional photocoagulation treatments. There is also a continuing need for a process for such treatment before retinal imaging abnormalities are detectable. Furthermore, there is a continuing need for a process that provides the application of a large number of laser doses to the treatment area, or even the entire retina, in a simultaneous manner without damaging the retinal tissue. The present invention fulfills these needs, and provides other related advantages.